by the possible approach of one or all of ninety-five new religions.

When we knew that Agon was caught, Nyleptha, Sir Henry, and I
discussed what was to be done with him. I was for closely incarcerating
him, but Nyleptha shook her head, saying that it would produce
a disastrous effect throughout the country. 'Ah!' she added,
with a stamp of her foot, 'if I win and am once really Queen,
I will break the power of those priests, with their rites and
revels and dark secret ways.' I only wished that old Agon could
have heard her, it would have frightened him.

'Well,' said Sir Henry, 'if we are not to imprison him, I suppose
that we may as well let him go. He is of no use here.'

Nyleptha looked at him in a curious sort of way, and said in
a dry little voice, 'Thinkest thou so, my lord?'

'Eh?' said Curtis. 'No, I do not see what is the use of keeping him.'

She said nothing, but continued looking at him in a way that
was as shy as it was sweet.

Then at last he understood.

'Forgive me, Nyleptha,' he said, rather tremulously. 'Dost thou
mean that thou wilt marry me, even now?'

'Nay, I know not; let my lord say,' was her rapid answer; 'but
if my lord wills, the priest is there and the altar is there'
-- pointing to the entrance to a private chapel -- 'and am I
not ready to do the will of my lord? Listen, oh my lord! In
eight days or less thou must leave me and go down to war, for
thou shalt lead my armies, and in war -- men sometimes fall,
and so I would for a little space have had thee all my own, if
only for memory's sake;' and the tears overflowed her lovely
eyes and rolled down her face like heavy drops of dew down the
red heart of a rose.

'Mayhap, too,' she went on, 'I shall lose my crown, and with
my crown my life and thine also. Sorais is very strong and very
bitter, and if she prevails she will not spare. Who can read
the future? Happiness is the world's White Bird, that alights
seldom, and flies fast and far till one day he is lost in the
clouds. Therefore should we hold him fast if by any chance he
rests for a little space upon our hand. It is not wise to neglect
the present for the future, for who knows what the future will
be, Incubu? Let us pluck our flowers while the dew is on them,
for when the sun is up they wither and on the morrow will others
bloom that we shall never see.' And she lifted her sweet face
to him and smiled into his eyes, and once more I felt a curious
pang of je